Using Twitter at the SIOP Conference for a Better Learning & Networking Experience

The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) is holding its annual conference from April 26-28 in San Diego, California. This professional society is dedicated to the science of psychology applied to work and organizational settings, with sessions focusing on HR, OD, and personnel research and practice. This posting is to help those of us who are SIOP members (and those of you in HR and OD who are not SIOP members) connect better during and after the conference. Specifically, if you are new to Twitter or to Twitter Chats, then this posting will help you ramp up and have a better learning and networking experience.

First, I would like to encourage folks to use Twitter while at the SIOP conference to share ideas about sessions, note memorable moments, and share comparisons of ideas across sessions. By attaching the hash tag #SIOP, anyone can filter tweets to see all the latest conference comings and goings. If you have not used Twitter before, my experience from last year is that the conference tweets were really helpful in making the large conference feel smaller. I met folks for coffee, and followed people with similar interests to my own.

In Case Twitter is Greek to You...

Would you like to experiment with Twitter at the conference? That's what I did last year. All you need is a free Twitter account and to connect with me (click here). Once you have a Twitter account, nothing really happens until you follow others (for example, you can follow SIOP by searching for @SIOPtweets on Twitter and then clicking on "Follow"). Then, anything that is tweeted by a person/organization that you follow will automatically come to your Twitter account. At a conference (or any live event for that matter), you can use your smart phone app to post messages on Twitter (which are known as tweets... yeah, it's corny, but you get used to it).

You can tweet messages outward by clicking on the "Compose New Tweet" button and typing in a message. All tweets must be 140 characters or less, and that includes any "hash tags," which are like labels that people use to search for a topic. If everyone at the SIOP conference uses the #SIOP hash tag when posting about the conference, then anyone on Twitter can search using that hash tag and see all the postings. Learn more about Twitter here.



Twitter Chat Session


Second, I would like to announce that I will moderate a Twitter Chat session on the last day of the SIOP conference, which is Saturday April 28, 6:00-7:00 PM Pacific Time (just after the ending session by Albert Bandura!). Some discussion points will be:


- Q1 Reactions to Bandura's presentation


- Q2 Most helpful sessions at conference (so others can request papers, get audio record)


- Q3 Contradictions and unresolved issues


- Q4 Suggestions for next conference


- Q5 Seeking collaboration for research and/or 2013 submissions


- Q6 Other thoughts/ideas/comments


Again, if you have no experience with a Twitter chat session, don't worry... I have only participated in one myself, but it is REALLY easy to join and if you are bored to tears, it is really easy to leave.

A Twitter chat is nothing more than a preplanned time for interested parties to search for the tag that will be used for the chat session. In this case, I will use the same #SIOP tag. So, if you search for #SIOP between 6:00-7:00 pm PDT on April 28, then you will see all the postings as they happen. In fact, you can search and read the postings afterwards, too.

If you want to not only read these postings, but contribute to the discussion, all you have to do is (again) tweet your response to the current topic and include the hashtag #SIOP. It's that easy. When you see a tweet that you want to comment on, you can just hit "Reply" and Twitter automatically includes the @ symbol followed by the person who tweeted.

I will moderate the chat session by introducing questions/topics by number (as in the Q1 to Q6 list above) so that participants can include the number in their tweet as well. If you see my tweet, you can just reply and include the topic by number. For example:

• paulmastrangelo: Q1-What did you think about Albert Bandura's speech?
• you: @paulmastrangelo Q1-That guy rocks!
• somebodyelse: @paulmastrangelo Q1-Ugh! Wish I stayed! What did he talk about?
• anotherdude: @somebodyelse @paulmastrangelo Q1-Way more than social learning.
• paulmastrangelo: Q2-What were the most helpful sessions you saw?
• lateperson: Q1-His joke was really funny!

A Twitter session can be difficult to follow, and some sidebar conversations will pop up. But with the tags, the topic numbers, and the replies to specific people, it manages to work out well.

Hoping you will join and spread the word!!! (Follow me at @paulmastrangelo)


This content is protected by the 1976 Copyright Protection Act of the United States of America. The proper citation for this blog is as follows: Mastrangelo, P. M. (date posted). Title of Post. The First Domino, available at http://the-first-domino.blogspot.com. This post is not intended to represent any person or organization other than Paul M. Mastrangelo.